Prime Location

Fortunatelyfor
local businesses, all the talk of a recession doesn't seem to be
hampering area restaurants. More and more chains continue to discover
Milwaukee, the latest of which is Fratellos. The first Fratellos opened
in Oshkosh, with subsequent locations in Green Bay and Appleton. The
Milwaukee site is a choice one: on the ground floor of a new
condominium located on Water Street beside the Milwaukee River.

Patrons
enter into a bar, which is separated from the dining room by a glass
partition and stacked wine bottles. An outdoor dining deck provides
views of river activity and a great canyon of condominiums. The name
Fratellos hints at Italian, and you will find pizzas and pastas on the
menu. There are also steaks, salads and even Asian-inspired stir-fry
options. Budget-minded diners will find many sandwiches for less than
$10. One item of note is the “fratbread,” a wafer-thin flatbread that
appears with sandwich wraps and pizzas.

The seafood appetizers
tend to be a bit more daring than the other starters. Tuna lollipops
($9.99) are pieces of ahi tuna cooked rare and coated with black and
white sesame seeds. They are best eaten without the provided sauces.
The “Signature” crab cakes appear as an appetizer ($8.99), with a
Caesar salad ($11.99) and as an entrée ($17.99). If there is any crabmeat
in them, though, it is hard to find, as they are pasty and flavorless.
And the sushi maki ($9.99) will make you wish that you were at a real
Japanese restaurant. The white chicken chili ($2.99-5.99) goes beyond
“Signature” and calls itself “World Famous.”

Unfortunately,
the hint of cumin gets lost in a sea of sweet white starch. You're
better off sticking to items that are made with the fratbread; it's
crisp and makes a fine crust for a thin-crust pizza. A good choice is
portobello mushroom and bacon ($9.99); the mushrooms are sliced and the
bacon finely chopped. Add a vibrant tomato sauce, Gorgonzola cheese and
chopped fresh basil and you have a winner, a perfect item to savor on
the outdoor deck with a glass of wine.

Bypassing steaks and
pastas, I ventured into the entrees named “Fratellos Signatures.” Pork
osso bucco is one option; the safer-sounding bruschetta chicken
($15.99) is another, and consists of boneless chicken breast with a
bread coating that is topped with mozzarella. The menu claims that it's
fresh mozzarella, but it doesn't seem like it. Nevertheless, it's
good enough with a few drizzles of balsamic vinegar. The downfall is
the pesto-infused bed of risotto. A good risotto is made with a firm
short-grained rice that never ends up mushy, as this rice did.

In
spite of its shortcomings, Fratellos has some strengths as well.
Customers seem perfectly happy with the sandwich and pizza choices. The
wine list includes unusual vintages and abundant bottles in the $20 to
$40 range. And Wisconsin
products are used frequently, including beers from the Fox River
Brewery of Oshkosh, which is another division of this restaurant group.

Fratellos' location is a prime one. In fact, it's one of the nicest along the river. Perhaps that will prove to be enough.

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